Hoheisel column: Want to know your town? Visit a museum

Early in my career — 15 years or so ago — I visited a unique museum. As a new museum professional, I was curious about all the different museums in the area, so I took time to go to the Museum of Questionable Medical Devices in Minneapolis.

The museum highlighted strange devices that supposedly worked miracles. (Spoiler alert — they did nothing at all.) For example, in the collection is a “psychograph,” which measures the size of bumps on the human head to determine someone’s personality. In the 19th century, the science of “phrenology,” reading those skull bumps, allegedly revealed character traits such as intelligence, spirituality, suavity and chastity. In reality, the bumps on a human head have nothing to do with personality, or anything else for that matter.

The Museum of Questionable Medical Devices no longer exists, but the collection was acquired by the Science Museum of Minnesota in St. Paul where part of it is on display. On a recent visit, I saw the collection again.

The objects on display expose nonsensical medicine, quackery and pseudoscience while advocating rational and scientific ideas. It is part of our collective heritage as a nation. As ludicrous, and dangerous, as some of the objects were, someone at some point in time thought that they were on the right track medically. The museum collection, and others like it, serve as a guidepost in our search for the truth.

For those of you who are not regular readers of my column, I am the executive director of the Stearns History Museum. I have been working in museums for almost 20 years, and I am still curious about the many kinds of museums. There are tens of thousands of types of museums, many strange and unique ones among them.

They range from high brow to funky

Until recently, the number of museums in the United States was assumed to be about 17,000. That number came from a 1990s museum census. The number includes general museums, historical houses and sites, history museums, art museums, children’s museums, aquariums, arboretums, botanical gardens, nature centers, natural history and anthropology museums, planetariums, science and technology centers, specialized museums and zoological parks in the 50 states and the District of Columbia.

Any organization that has a collection and interprets it can be considered a museum. A zoo contains a collection of animals; they are on display for people to view, and their lives and habitat are interpreted through labels and programs — hence, a “museum.”

A recent report by the Institute of Museums and Library Services shows we were way off in our estimation of how many museums are in the U.S. According to a May news release, there are 35,144 museums in America. Don’t believe me? See for yourself: www.imls.gov/research/museum_universe_data_file.aspx.There are more museums in America than there are Starbucks coffee shops and McDonalds restaurants — combined. I happen to think that is a very good thing.

The usual suspects rise to the top when we think of what a great museum is in America: the Smithsonian, the Guggenheim, the Field Museum, the Museum of Modern Art, the National Museum of American History and the Getty Centercome to mind. In Minnesota, there are more than 600 museums, including the Walker Art Center, the Minneapolis Institute of Art, the Minnesota History Center, the Science Museum, the Weisman Art Museum, and the Stearns History Museum here in St. Cloud.

I love museums in general, all kinds, but I like unique museums the most. On my bucket list is a visit to the Museum of Old and New Art in Hobart, Tasmania. It is known as the MONA, in opposition to the MOMA in New York, and it calls itself an “unmuseum,” a “subversive adult Disneyland.” That alone makes me want to visit it.

The East Coast has many wonderful museums, but did you know that there is a Museum of Bad Art in Boston? Or a hair museum in Independence, Missouri, one of many worldwide? There is a UFO museum and research center in New Mexico, of course, a circus museum, a funeral history museum, and several barbed wire museums in America. If you can think of it, there is probably a museum about it somewhere in the world.

Yes, there is a sex museum, two actually, in New York and in Amsterdam. There is a spy museum in Washington, D.C. There is museum of toilets in India, a museum of toilet seats in San Antonio. There was a museum of toilet paper in Madison, Wisconsin, but sadly, it closed in 2000.

Near us, in addition to the collection of questionable medical devices, there are some other unique local museums. The Spam Museum in Austin sounds like a place I want to visit. Ever visit the National Mustard Museum in Middleton, Wisconsin? How about the International Vinegar Museum in Roslyn, South Dakota? There are a number of beer museums in the Midwest, several in Wisconsin, which is not surprising.

Museums provide refuge from our digital worlds

Museums, no matter what their subject or collection, are more popular than ever. So many people want to go to the top museums in the world that the museums are having to impose visitation restrictions. According to a New York Times article from last month, the most popular museum in the world, the Louvre in Paris, had 9.3 million visitors in 2013. The British Museum in London had 6.7 million visitors.

The Sistine Chapel can only hold about 2,000 people at a time and has 20,000 visitors a day, only limited by space. So many people want to see Michelangelo’s famous ceiling fresco that the Vatican has to continually upgrade the climate-control systems in the chapel. Thousands of people a day going through the chapel changes the heat and humidity of the space and can have significant adverse effects on the more than 500-year-old artwork. Museums like the Louvre, Uffizi in Italy and Hermitage in Russia are having to find new ways to balance preservation with access, which is an age-old issue for museums. The number of people visiting museums is at an unprecedented level.

Why are people flocking to museums in greater numbers than ever?

Several reasons. Museums exhibit real artifacts and real art. In our hyper-digital online world, interacting with a real sculpture, or painting, or historical artifact, is a much more gratifying and moving experience than seeing a tiny photo of it on a cellphone screen. Anyone can pick up a textbook and can read about Renaissance art, but when you are standing in the Sistine Chapel looking up, nothing can compare.

The next time you take a trip, check out the museums. No matter where you are, you will have a memorable experience. Likewise, be a tourist in your own town and visit the museums in your own backyard. I’m not just advocating for my museum, but all museums.

If you really want to know a place, the place in which you live, you have to dig a little deeper. The absolute best place to do that is at a museum.

This column is the opinion of Tim Hoheisel, a historian and executive director of Stearns History Museum. Reach him at Stearns History Museum at 253-8424 or by email at thoheisel@stearns-museum.org.